Annotated bibliography for engineering ethics

Annotated bibliography for engineering ethics

Introduction

Engineering as a profession requires adherence to standard guidelines and values for the overall good of the society and engineering profession. Ethics provides a baseline within which engineer gauges if his or her activities are morally justified. Engineering practice affects the entire fabric of society and shapes most government decisions; thus, a flaw in engineering is likely to cause adverse effects to a community significantly. An engineering failure can cost the organization in a big way; therefore, the guidelines helped in giving a scope within which if an engineer works minimizes the probability of failure to a minimum or zilch. For example, ethics helps in reducing engineering failures such as the Tacoma Bridge, which not only endangered lives but also consumed large sums of social resources that could have serviced other sectors.  In this annotated bibliography, our focus will be on how the different authors have navigated the topic of engineering ethics and how it has brought sanity in the engineering profession since its incorporation.

The sources

Fleddermann, C. (2012). Engineering Ethics [Ebook] (4th ed.). New Mexico: University of New Mexico. Retrieved from http://file:///C:/Users/hp/Downloads/Engineering%20Ethics_Fleddermann.pdf

Fledderman explores all the intrigues surrounding ethical precepts of engineering in the entire book, including the importance of ethics and the typeof ethical considerations required in the engineering field. It also incorporates case studies of engineering failures that the world has experienced based on the failure to adhere to ethical concerns of safety. The book ends with different codes of practice for engineers in different countries, showing just how the societies have moves to safeguard Engineering as a fabric to societal upheaval.

Martin, M., &Schinzinger, R. (2010). Introduction to Engineering ethics [Ebook] (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw Hill. Retrieved from http://file:///C:/Users/hp/Downloads/9ee8c6c8eb9479eee0ded500b7fdf8f7bc45.pdf

The Ebook sees ethics as a way of making the technological benefits of engineering inventions to supersede its effects on society.  It explores various spheres within which ethics can be incorporated, such as environmental protection, human safety, workplace safety, and morality upholding.  These form part of conceptual models that societies can use to inform their decision-making on a particular engineering intervention. The book defines the fundamental concepts in ethics, provides case studies, and present alternative views to sustainable engineering practice..

The royal academy of engineering. (2011). Engineering ethics in practice: a guide for engineers [Ebook] (1st ed.). London: The Royal Academy of Engineering. Retrieved from http://file:///C:/Users/hp/Downloads/Engineering_ethics_in_practice_a_guide_f.pdf

This EBook provides the relevant ethical precepts that engineers ought to adhere to for integrity development in the profession. It is a guide and bases on real engineering cases to make moral reasoning commensurate with such matters. The guide defines various aspects of ethics concerning engineering and shows how an individual can effectively carry out himself or herself to be ethically conscious.  Finally, the guide also provides the various codes of conduct in engineering that can be employedin line with the requisite objectives.

The objective of the study

Our aim for this research is to determine the scope within which engineering ethics can be employed in the entire engineering field. This will include exploring its importance and the contemporary ethical difficulties that the engineering profession experiences that warrant ethical considerations.  Ethics encompasses all the proper ways that an individual can carry out himself or herself to avoid discomfort or harm to the public. In engineering, we want to exploit all the aspects of engineering that, in case of professional negligence is likely to cause safety concerns to the people.

Additionally, engineering has brought about significant societal breakthroughs that were initially perceived as fiction. However, safety concerns remain pervasive in the engineering sector; thus, requisite guidelines are supposed to be in place to control the extremes of engineering as a practice. For example, the aeronautical engineers were able to develop concord or some of the fastest and biggest planes. However, the industry has recorded numerous accidents with the majority relating to human negligence. Structural engineers have also developed superstructures, but the globe, in general, has witnessed buildings collapsing. The document would, therefore, exploit how effectively the incorporation of ethics in the engineering profession could have provided remedial alternatives to salvage such life-threatening situations.

First source

Fledderman argues that it is crucial to consider engineering ethics as an engineer as the past is replete with numerous cases of engineering failures that formed part of media attention. This acted as an eye-opening experience to gain cognizance of professional responsibility as the key to the engineering sector. Additionally, every major corporation has ethical perspectives regulating their conduct; thus, it is essential for engineering to follow suit. Fledderman defines engineering as the management of the unknown as it involves the creation of new products and devices. Engineers, therefore, tend to encounter technicalities that they do not have full information on how to salvage. Additionally, engineering problems tend to be complicated, and their solutions may bring about conflicting ethical standards putting engineers in a difficult situation when it comes to salvaging the problems.

Fledderman highlights three cases where ethics is required in engineering practice being environment, computer, and research.  Environmental ethics revolves around all the designs aimed at controlling the introduction of toxic substances to the environment. Engineers should find technologies that work to salvage the negative environmental impacts that are detrimental to sustainability. In this design, engineering incorporates green engineering or sustainable design concepts put in place to ensure that engineering practice conforms to the environmental systems. Ethics in engineering is introducing the moral dimensions of ethical precepts in environmentalism that require consideration of plants and animals as an obligation by humans to protect.

The second scope is computer ethics; the use of computers is pervasive in every society, and in engineering, its use is far more comprehensive. However, computer use has subjected the community to anarray of ethical concerns that require consideration. In engineering, a computer can be used to steal money from the employer through the inflation of figures in design. Additionally, there are privacy concerns. Computers tend to store large data sets and allows for access based on need. The leakage of such information can subject the owner to blackmail or loss of authorized personal information. Hacking people’s systems and stealing their designs and drawings is equivalent to an ethical breach, which may result in a lawsuit when found.

The final scope of engineering ethics is research; research is the core of engineering as the findings are employed to inform decision-making. In this regard, Fledderman highlights two ethical issues as pervasive in research, which is honesty in approaching research and honesty in reporting theresults.  Results must always be in line with the objectives and specific evidence provided for any assertion that a report gives. The book gives an account of ‘the space shuttle challenge,’ an accident that occurred due to the launching of the spacecraft during cold weather.  The engineers wanted to delay the launch following the extreme weather conditions, but their activities were overruled, citing insufficiency in data. From this account, the documented accident was mainly due to the failure to adhere to the research proposal by neglecting evidence.

Second source

On the other hand, Mike and Rowland, in their book, defines ethics as an appreciation of the positive dimensions of engineering that enrich our lives while working on solutions to salvage the negative consequences. They also appreciate that studying engineering is essential as it ensures that the technologies that are incorporated in the market are useful and safe. There are several moral complexities in engineering; thus, the ethics work to strengthen our moral ability to consider morally cognizant alternatives.

For effective engineering practice, the book explores different ethical skills that require consideration for an effective engineering profession. These include moral awareness, respect to persons, moral coherence, moral communication, cogent moral reasoning, and tolerance to diversity, among others. In line with these values, the book highlights the technical and economic morality precepts in four diverse directions being consumer usefulness, financial benefits, safety, and environmental protection. Security, for example, is an intrinsic factor in the moral consideration for human beings. Product design may bring about minor injuries or cause infections, which will increase the overall burden on our healthcare. For the environment, it is of significance to protect the environment as it is the space that we inhabit, damaging it will only compromise both our stay and that for the coming generations. Ethics, therefore, provides a platform within which engineering practice will adhere to the safety living of individuals in their space.

The book provides three major frameworks in engineering ethics being rights ethics, duty, and utilitarianism. The rights ethics constitute the most fundamental ethical concept to adhere to. Human rights are the moral authority that subjects individual s to respect and recognize others’ choices. Rights provide the moral and legal foundation where all cases refer to cases of disparity. In engineering, we have various laws in the constitution that warrants engineersto abide. On duty ethics, there are right actions that as an engineer, so have to follow. This shows that every engineer in a particular jurisdiction has the mandate to follow concerning either safety or environmental protection. Utilitarianism, on the other hand, states that the requisite standard action is a good consequence.  Therefore, if the actions of an engineer uphold the safety, welfare, and health of the public, then it becomes an ethical concept.

Mike and Rowland identify four different spheres where ethics is requisite as an engineer. First, we have the workplace in which strict adherence to rights and responsibilities is essential. In this sphere, factors to consider include conflicts of interest that can work to compromise the integrity of a given engineering avenue. We also have confidentiality, where it is a requisite to keep an employer’s’ confidential information and only enable access where relevant.  The book also highlights computer ethics, which includes the components of privacy as a pervasive issue in the computer world with free speech and internet that sometimes tend to limit engineers from upholding integrity. Computer ethics also incorporate property concerns being that hacking and access to private property have become very predominantintoday’s engineering field. The third area is environmental ethics; this presents some sustainable development techniques to salvage environmental degradation due to harmful engineering practices.  The moral frameworks regarding environmental ethics include biocentric ethics, eco-centric ethics, human-centered, and centered scientific ethics. Finally, we have global justice as an area requiring engineering ethics. Engineering is cuts across all societies, and with globalization, technology transfer remains intrinsic in today’s society. Ethical precepts are, therefore, fundamental to regulate the engineering profession on a global scale. For example, we have the euro codes that provide harmony to the codes of practice in the entire Europe.

Third source

The royal academy of engineering on ethics and engineer guide also provide various ways in which ethics is important for an engineer.  Firsts, engineers have to update their knowledge on their field of expertise to instill confidence in the profession, thus the need for evidence-based decision-making systems.  Secondly, there are often cases of conflict of interest that may compromise the viability of engineering; reliance on up to date knowledge information, therefore, provides a positive baseline to dictate their judgments and provide an objective assertion. One of the fundamental cannons of an engineer is public safety; it is, therefore, a responsibility of engineers to account for the effects of their activities on people and the environment in the context of their actions.

The guide provides five reasons why ethical consideration is vital for an engineer. Firsts, we have the justification of work where the engineering activity must provide valid reasons why it has to be carried out in a particular society.  In this regard, the engineer has the responsibility of pointing out any harm that the design or product is likely to pose to the potential users. Justification ensures that the activity is inline with ethical principles and minimizes the possibility of risks related to the activity.

The second is minimization and justification of adverse impacts, and this is particular to environmental ethics, where at some point, engineering activities will have to affect the environment. Therefore, a definition of the extent of the impact would be an ethically plausible means of safeguardthe environment from adverse effects.  The third is the respect of limited resources; engineering ethics should focus on safeguarding limited resources against excess exploitation or protection from contamination.  Clean water, for example, is insufficient in the universe; thus, ethical principles in engineering work to safeguard such commodities. Additionally, engineering involves extensive exploitation of resources such as minerals, making them scarce. Engineering ethics that incorporates sustainable exploitation is, therefore, a critical concept that ethics sort to cover.

Fourth, we have health and safety; most engineering failures often subject humans to safety concerns, as there is a possibility of disease outbreak or deaths.  For example, the space shuttle that failed due to ethical negligence resulted in an accident that brought about deaths. Ethics is, therefore, predominantly about safety, be it environmental or computer ethics.  An engineering practice, which upholds safety as the core often,instills confidence in the general population.  Finally, we have the reputation of engineering; reputation arises when the public gains general confidence in your products or services. Upholding engineering ethics will affirm that the appropriate systems are used, thus limiting the possibilities of failure. Public trust, therefore, grows, thus appreciating engineering as a profession rather than focusing on the setbacks related to engineering practices. Reputation is, therefore, a core reason for engineering ethics.

Comparison and contrast of the sources

The three sources provide a comprehensive and detailed explanation of the importance of ethics in engineering and the scopes of engineering that warrant ethics. Fledderman highlights the various ethical principles that an engineer ought to consider; he also highlights some of the ethical issues that often arise in engineering practice that require ethical cognizances such as environment and computer. He also presents some ethical techniques that engineers can employ to solve problems that arise in engineering. Roland and Martin Introduction to engineering ethics, on the other hand, define the moral frameworks within which an engineer ought to function. It also describes the key areas in engineering where ethics is required, such as the workplace. This study gives us guidance on how ethics are employed in every sphere of engineering and the overall need for adherence. The third guide by the royal academy of engineering takes a somewhat different dimension on the topic; it provides various reasons why ethics is used in engineering. They are not the importance of ethics but give the core of societal concerns why ethics are required, and these may include safety guarantee and an increase in reputation for the engineering profession.

The three sources, however, have significant similarities in describing the topic, both stress the safety of people as the core need for engineering ethics. Likewise, the sources appreciate that engineering is the core of societal progress but can have an adverse negative impact on the environment. Therefore, the sources attribute ethics in engineering to the provision of a solution to most environmental cases that the engineering profession has affected over the years.  Finally, the sources affirm that adherence to the codes of practice established by the engineering institutions provides a sense of responsibility and thus becomes a core requirement to adherence to environmental ethics.

Answering the question

Our research question was determining the scope of engineering ethics and how they are employed in the engineering field. Firsts,the sources have highlighted safety and health consideration during engineering works and products. Second, we have the environment; environmental protection forms part of the scope of why ethics is required in every ecological sphere. Third, we have a range of computer ethics. The sources state that with the ubiquitous use of computers in every aspect of the society, computer-related vices are most likely to be pervasive in the society, and engineering ethics ought to cover this in their systems. The fourth scope is research; this involves using validated sources with requisite evidence to support an assertion. This states that any engineering decision should be based on evidence from valid research I line withbasic principles of ethics. The fifth scope is a workplace; this includes the ethical principles required to maintain harmony in the workplace, such as safeguarding privacy, respect for others, and responsibility to obligation.

The sources also highlight the importance of ethics in engineering as increasing the reputation for the engineering profession, guarantee health and safety for the beneficiaries of any engineering product, and respect to others’ information in an engineering project or workplace.  The sources also highlight the virtues that an engineer obtains by learning engineering ethics that could prove vital in other spheres of social life as a citizen, and these include responsibility, honesty, and respect to others.